Bringing in the 2011 in style!

OK, so we aren't. Instead Lael and Arden had all their wisdom teeth pulled out today. Actually, I think Lael's were cut out. They neither one wanted to miss school so they did it on CHRISTmas break. Weird, I know, but let's just say they are much better students than I was.

Dear husband is such a sweet guy he stayed home from work and even took them. I was so happy I got to sleep in. Actually, I'm a little worn out from Cokie's surgery on Tuesday.




The "experts" say don't adopt "virtual" twins. Hog wash!! It makes life much easier to do two at a time. Or,in our case four at at a time. We have four 8 years old. Seriously, people are always telling me I must be really organized. I guess this is what they mean. : - )







Bret has been waiting on them hand and foot. PS Just so you know the junk under the bench are the hats Lael is constantly making for orphans in China. BTW, she is always looking for yarn donations.

Cokie is 8!

All good things come from above and that includes her.






Miss Cokie Wei Bettina is growing up way too fast.

CHRISTmas

I took this picture of Cokie this morning at church. They still had the CHRISTmas theme going so it was nice. Have you ever had something on your mind or been upset and the preacher says something that you know is for you? This happened to me this morning. It felt so random it freaked me out. It gave me peace the rest of the day. I was so glad I drug my butt out of bed even though it was the day after CHRISTmas. I had even contemplated on just dropping the kids off and going for coffee. Thank goodness I didn't.



Our stockings have a special meaning to me. Years ago one of my favorite people ever started buying a stocking for us every time we adopted. I'm sure she never dreamed she would have to buy them until the day she died. We got home with Stafan right before CHRISTmas a couple of years ago and I kept thinking she would show up with his stocking, but she never did. Right after the holidays I got a call she had cancer. She was gone the next day. She was my friend, but she bought stockings for my two sister's kids too. My younger sister has to have everything match and wasn't using hers so I asked for them. Now my other kids have my sweet friend's stocking too.










Brady got coal.



Shepard's first CHRISTmas. He was almost giddy.



Remi's first too!









The kids had a good CHRISTmas. That night they were TIRED! Lyric cried during the night several times from just being out of her head. Finally around 2:00am she comes in and says "I know what is bothering me. I keep dreaming the kids won't leave my toys alone."









Come and get it!






My sister made this cake for Jesus. I put the mice on the desserts. Maybe I should have left it off His cake.





















After a hard day you gotta love this dirty little face.






She waited a long time for this daddy.



My brother's wife from Moscow and such a lovely lady.

Brady is home for CHRISTmas!

Our soldier is home for the holiday!




My three sons, Brady, Stafan and Shepard.

Happy B-day Remi Adria Cai!

Remi has been with us 5 months!! She is a Daddy's girl big time. She was really happy this morning when Abigail called to wish her a great day. Abigail was her best friend in China and and now lives a few minutes from us. Abigail was adopted a few days before Remi. I'm not sure what all they talked about since they were speaking in Cantonese. I do know one thing was Abigail's new braces and Remi's future ones. Oh, and thanks Robin for showing me Remi's file and telling me to adopt her. That is all it took. : - )

The Shriner's CHRISTmas party

The Shriners are amazing, amazing, amazing people!! We don't use them now, since we opted to use our insurance. But Shriners really is free and they are all about the kids. Bret and Cokie were both burned before we got them in China. They are two perfect, smart, beautiful, deserving little girls that need a lot of surgeries. I don't want to sound too corny, but it is our GREAT privilege to be their parents and you can't imagine how proud Mike and I are of them well, maybe you can since I talk about them all the time. Do you want to see more report cards? Maybe more pictures? : - )




Bret Bai Ling and Cokie Wei Bettina!

Baby it's cold outside

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Shepard said he wanted to play in the snow and I said no. Arden said "His idea of playing in the snow is shoveling snow." I said " Oh, really? In that case tell him to knock himself out." This is his first time to be around snow, since living in Guangzhou is like living in Florida.





















We went out to breakfast and Lyric decided to take along her Bible. : - )